Watch the Western Evening Sky As Venus and Jupiter Chase Each Other!

A rare phenomenon that wasn’t seen for over 2000 years, Venus and Jupiter will converge and be the closest in the night sky in the evening on June 30th to July 1st. This occurrence only took place in 3 BC and is called by many astronomers as the Star of Bethlehem.

This of course is not a star in its own right but the close proximity between Venus and Jupiter. After the Sun and the Moon, these two planets in our Solar System are the brightest objects in the night sky. All throughout the evening sky we can look to the West and see these two magnificent planets come closer and closer to each other.

With just a small telescope or even a pair of binoculars we can truly witness these two planets up close and can even see Jupiter’s four largest satellites: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This event is said to last until August 2016 and is set to repeat in 2023. However these two planets will not come as close as they will do now and it will most likely not happen for the next two millennia.